Injections of various substances into avian eggs is commonly referred to as in ovo injection. Such injections have been employed to decrease post-hatch mortality rates, increase the potential growth rates or eventual size of the resulting bird, and even to influence the gender determination of the embryo. Similarly, injections of antigens into live eggs have been employed to incubate various substances used in vaccines which have human or animal medicinal or diagnostic applications. Examples of substances that have been used for, or proposed for, in ovo injection include vaccines, antibiotics and vitamins. In addition, removal of material from avian eggs has been employed for various purposes, such as testing and vaccine harvesting.
An egg injection apparatus (i.e., in ovo injection apparatus) may comprise a plurality of injection devices which operate simultaneously or sequentially to inject a plurality of eggs. The injection apparatus may comprise an injection head which comprises the injection devices, and wherein each injection device is in fluid communication with a source containing a treatment substance to be injected. In ovo injection of substances (as well as in ovo extraction of materials) typically occurs by piercing an egg shell to form an opening (e.g., via a punch), extending an injection needle through the hole and into the interior of the egg (and in some cases into the avian embryo contained therein), and injecting treatment substance(s) through the needle and/or removing material therefrom.
An in ovo injection apparatus conventionally is designed to operate in conjunction with commercial egg carrier carriers or flats. Egg flats utilized in conjunction with an in ovo injection apparatus typically contain an array of pockets that are configured to support a respective plurality of avian eggs in a generally upright orientation. The eggs flats may be typically transported through the in ovo injection apparatus via an automated conveyor system having sensors and other automated control devices for registering the egg flat beneath the injection head for injection of the eggs carried by the egg flat. These control systems present an increased cost for manufacture of an automated in ovo injection apparatus capable of providing high throughput and reduced headcount for operation thereof.
However, in some instances, an automated in ovo injection apparatus may not be practical for use by a customer. Thus, in such instances, a manually operated in ovo injection apparatus without an automated conveyor system for transporting the egg flats through the in ovo injection apparatus may be suitable as an alternative to the automated in ovo injection apparatus. Issues with a manually operated in ovo injection apparatus may arise when an egg flat carries a quantity of eggs greater than the number of injection devices forming the injection head (e.g., an egg flat having 150 pockets and an injection head having 50 injection devices). In this regard, the operator must position the egg flat at multiple injection positions beneath the injection head in order to inject all of the eggs carried by the egg flat. That is, the injection head must be actuated at least more than one time to provide multiple injection events to a single egg flat in some instances. Requiring the operator to manually position the egg flat at multiple injection positions can lead to errors such as, for example, misalignment of the needles and eggs (may lead to bend injection needles, which creates apparatus downtime), missing the eggs entirely (e.g., injecting at interstitial sites between adjacent eggs), and multiple injections of the same eggs.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an indexing system for use with an in ovo injection apparatus lacking an automated conveyor system for transporting eggs flats therethough, so as to ensure proper positioning of egg flats beneath an injection head at multiple injection positions. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide an associated method that would facilitate high throughput of in ovo injections implemented by an in ovo injection apparatus lacking an automated conveyor system for transporting eggs flats therethough, while reducing operator errors associated therewith.